Project Spotlight: Urban Tranquility in the Heart of Boston

A.T.: “Our friends and neighbors were renovating their Beacon Hill home, working with Nina Farmer, and their contractor suddenly passed away. Nina put them in touch with Wellen, who she had worked with on previous projects. My neighbors told me they had a wonderful experience, so we reached out. Our experience with other renovation projects gave us a sense of what we wanted. Wellen understood how to do a lot of high-quality construction work, and I sensed that they were eager to do more in the city. They had the bandwidth for a project of this size. We immediately clicked with Charlie, so we went with them. Kudos to them because it was in the middle of COVID! They were really wonderful. There were a lot of people who were using supply chain issues as excuses, but Wellen just plowed through and got stuff done.”

A.T.: “A lot of the change took place on the first floor. Originally, the space felt very closed off—standing in the hallway behind the kitchen and looking out the window, all you could see were bricks. There was a wall that made everything feel tight. In the kitchen, the ceiling and windows stopped at cabinet height, limiting light and openness. The sunlight hit the space in a way that made it dark and confined. The hallway behind the kitchen was previously narrow, with cabinets on either side of a small window. So, we swapped the kitchen and dining room locations. And we renovated the back of the building to bring more of the outdoors in by incorporating garden-facing windows, both on the first floor and the garden floor, for a seamless indoor-outdoor flow.”

A.T.: “You can’t see it from the street, which gave us flexibility since it’s located in a historic district. We went through the architectural commission, but since the windows aren’t visible from the street, we had more room to make changes. The leeway in the design allowed us to maximize natural light—you can see the sky from any of these windows.”

A.T.: “We began in September 2020 and moved in on December 31, 2021. The Wellen team worked so well with our existing architect. They were here every day from the beginning. Charlie understood balancing the budget with quality and timing without cutting corners. In all of our experiences doing renovations, the contractors will often sell their follow-up services when they’re talking to you about following up and repairs and changes. Wellen’s maintenance has been phenomenal, off the charts, and I’ve spoken to many contractors over the years; their maintenance is the real deal. It’s high quality. It is responsive; you call them, and it is fixed immediately. And I cannot say how rare that is.”

A.T.: “The kitchen is where we spend most of our time. But really, we’re just thrilled to be here. Even my daughter doesn’t want to leave ever, even in college. It was a lot of work, so we’re all just happy to be in our home.”